The Little Man was at school, the Little Miss was napping so Kelly and I decided that it would be a good time to take a nap. She napped on the couch and I went up stairs to our room. I was just dozing off when, at 1:51pm,  it felt like a large truck was rumbling by. Then it got stronger and I immediately recognized it for what it seemed to be: an earthquake–

(When I lived in L.A., I lived through many earthquakes, including the Northridge earthquake in 1994. So I am very familiar with the sound and feeling that comes with earthquakes.)

–but I simply couldn’t believe it was an earthquake. As the shaking got harder and the rumbling continued, I thought to myself: we’re in the DC area, there are no earthquakes here. It has to be a terrorist attack of some kind. It continued to get stronger and I decided it was an earthquake, or I would treat it as such. I jumped out of bed and started running down the hall shouting, “Earthquake!” Kelly was sitting in a chair with the Little Miss and the earthquake continued to rumble. Eventually things settled down. Nothing fell in our house and there is no obvious damage.

It is now being reported that it was a 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered somewhere near Fredericksberg. Kelly’s parents were in the grocery store and said stuff was coming off the shelve and people were dashing out of the store. I’ve heard from friends as far north as Boston saying that they felt the earthquake. Several friends in New York reported feeling it as well.

I checked the house, looked at the chimney and things look okay around here. I went across the street to pick the Little Man up from school. They were in the middle of their nap time when the Earthquake struck. They were evacuated to the playground, well away from the building and they were all hanging out when I got there. They had a bunch of emergency supplies like water and food. I was very impressed by how well-prepared they were.

I’m sure there will be more later. In the meantime, you can follow more on the #earthquake hashtag on Twitter. I’d say that now things have settled down, I’d try to go back to sleep but the adrenaline is still flowing and I don’t see sleeping any time soon.

2 thoughts on “Earthquake?

  1. I was shocked too, then I couldn’t remember what to do so I just stood still and hoped the windows didn’t break.

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